In some applications, such as painting a large aircraft, large amounts of special effects paints and coatings are required to be applied to large surface areas of the object. When this process is not performed correctly, the expected “effect” (e.g., visual effect) is not achieved. In most cases, this error in the “effect” is not detected until after the paint has been dried and other additional processes have been performed to the coatings. In order to correct for this mistake, the painted object will need to be stripped and painted all over again.
As such, there is a need for a technique that allows for monitoring of the painting of an object at various stages of the application to verify that the expected effect is being achieved.